BBC: Fears of feta shortage due to sheep and goat pox outbreak in Greece

Anastasia Siourtou walks through her deserted farm on the outskirts of Karditsa, a city in the Thessaly region of central Greece. An eerie silence now prevails where 650 sheep used to be raised.

On 12 November, veterinarians killed all of the animals after detecting a case of sheep and goat pox.

“There is another farm two kilometres away. They had cases of pox, but they hid it,” she says, implying this is why her herd became infected. Ms Siourtou is herself a veterinarian and had expanded the farm created by her father.

The loss of the animals means financial ruin — aside from the loss of the herd itself, sheep’s milk, which is sold for feta production, is often referred to as Greece’s “white gold.”

But more than the financial hit, Ms Siourtou speaks of the emotional toll. “I was here the day the sheep were slaughtered. It was very hard. I felt like I had failed to protect them,” she says.

Possible feta shortages ahead

Feta must be made from at least 70% sheep’s milk, with the remainder being goat’s milk.Small dairy producers say they are already facing difficulties sourcing sheep’s milk, which may lead to a potential feta shortage in the future. Although prices have not yet increased, this is likely if the outbreak isn’t eradicated.

“The limited supply of milk increases production costs and makes it harder to maintain current feta quantities on the market,” says Professor Dimitris Gougoulis from the Veterinary School of the University of Thessaly.

Another farmer near Karditsa, Tasos Manakas, saw his 873-animal herd slaughtered on 9 October.

He now spends his days sitting in a small room in his empty barn. “The business is shut down,” he says bitterly.

Mr Manakas walks past the empty metal feeders and the milking room now covered in cobwebs. “I used to come in the morning, hear the animals bleating, pet them. The day they were slaughtered, I was here. If you had cut me open that day, I wouldn’t have bled,” he says.

He carefully flips through a government document full of numerical tables.

Affected farmers are offered compensation between €132 and €220 per sheep, depending on the animal’s age. Farmers say these payments are nowhere near enough to cover their losses.

Criticism of the government response

The government has also been criticised for its broader response to the outbreak. A National Scientific Committee for the Management and Control of Sheep and Goat Pox was only formed in late October — a full 14 months after the first detected case.

Meanwhile, no exclusion zones were created in areas where the first cases were recorded at the end of summer 2024, and critics argue the state veterinary service is significantly understaffed.

At the same time, farmers have been arrested for illegally transporting animals by truck into areas considered disease-free. Local reports also claim that infected animals have been buried in fields without informing authorities.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Rural Development and Food told the BBC: “We implemented the plan to eradicate sheep pox from the start, as outlined by European protocols. As a result, we reached nearly zero cases in the spring of 2025. The decision to establish the scientific committee in October 2025 was taken under one pressure: many farmers did not comply with biosecurity measures, resulting in an explosive rise in cases.”

Professor Gougoulis notes that the existing older vaccines are effective in countries where pox is endemic, but “they are not a tool for eradicating the disease.” “They do not fully prevent infection, and the virus may continue circulating in vaccinated populations,” he stresses.

The situation is getting out of control

However, the situation now seems to be slipping out of control.

Members of the National Committee for the Management and Control of Sheep and Goat Pox recently told journalists that farmers across the country may have carried out up to one million illegal vaccinations. This distorts the epidemiological picture and makes disease control even more difficult.

Many farmers are enraged by the officials’ claims. They say the estimate is arbitrary and accuse the scientific committee of jeopardising feta exports.

Farmer Haris Seskliotis, in the village of Rizomylos near Volos, listens to all this with deep concern. One infection was detected on his farm, triggering the preventive slaughter of 700 sheep.

It was the second time his farm was destroyed, after the devastating floods in Thessaly in 2023.

“It’s incredibly harsh,” he tells the BBC, walking among the empty sheep sheds.

Around him are stacks of hay bales meant for feeding the sheep, now unused and soon to rot in the yard.

Mr Seskliotis is not the sort to sit and count his wounds. “I’m thinking of setting up a new unit with my son for calf fattening,” he says. “We’ve never known anything other than raising livestock,” he concludes.

Source: pagenews.gr